Tag: Orchid

Market Wrap: Bitcoin Drops to $36.3K as DeFi Jumps to $32B on Ether FOMO

by Coindesk

Bitcoin has had an up-and-down day and ether has performed similarly. But decentralized finance hit a new milestone.

  • Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $37,616 as of 21:15 UTC (4:15 p.m. ET). Gaining 1.4% over the previous 24 hours.

  • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $36,207-$38,731 (CoinDesk 20)

  • BTC above the 10-hour and the 50-hour moving average on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Feb 1.

Source: TradingView

Bitcoin’s price had dropped Thursday, dipping to as low as $36,207, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Now, at press time, it has come back up, to $37,616.  

“Still trading around the 50-day moving average, so all good,” said Chris Thomas, head of institutional sales for Swissquote Bank. “Moved a long way back up over the last week or so again, so there’s just a little lack of energy today. And no more Elon pumps!”


Read More: Elon Musk Is Back Tweeting About Dogecoin as Price Rises 50%

Elon Musk may not be tweeting about bitcoin – he seems to favor dogecoin (DOGE) at the moment – but Thomas is right about the technicals: On the TradingView chart, the 50-day BTC price moving average has been bullish since October.

Daily bitcoin spot price on Bitstamp since October.

Source: TradingView

“Is it more sellers than buyers? Honestly, if I said anything it would be a false narrative,” said Vishal Shah, founder of crypto derivatives venue Alpha5. “Nothing has happened to change the course of anything here, just taking a breather here it seems.”


Read More: Visa Signals Further Crypto Ambitions With API Pilot

It still seems there’s been some rotation out of bitcoin and into other cryptocurrencies, or “altcoins.” One metric to watch: The share of trading volume of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, particularly ether, is now larger than ever, according to CoinDesk 20 exchange volume data.

Coindesk 20 crypto volumes the past six months.
(Shuai Hao/CoinDesk Research)

Source: CoinGecko

“Ether and the alts have been pushed quite aggressively over the last week or two so it’s a bit of profit taking,” said Swissquote’s Thomas, “Just looking at it all, not really much of a pullback. I think it’s just a pause for a breath.”

Some bullish analysts are undeterred. “These markets are going to surprise a lot of people to the upside,” said Rupert Douglas, head of institutional sales for crypto custody provider Koine. “Bitcoin is strong and is going to hit $100,000 this year, but ether is where you want to park your capital.” 

“We’re going to look back in three months’ time and think ETH at $1,600 was cheap,” Douglas added.

Ether FOMO fuels DeFi but fees cause mixed feelings

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Thursday trading around $1,652 and climbing 1% in 24 hours as of 21:15 UTC (4:15 p.m. ET). 

Read More: Ethereum Transaction Fees Hit Record Highs as Ether, DeFi Coins Soar


The amount of crypto in USD values locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) has crossed $32 billion, at $32.8 billion as of press time. That’s a gain of over 197% in the past three months, according to data aggregator DeFi Pulse.

Total value locked, or TVL, in DeFi the past three months.

Source: DeFi Pulse

Constantin Kogan, partner at crypto investment firm Wave Financial, points to ether’s all-time high as one of reasons for DeFi’s massive appreciation. Ether hit $1,697 Wednesday, according to CoinDesk 20 data. However, Kogan is concerned about fees, which often plague the ether market when ether gets hot. 

“The all-time high is great. For the whales [large holders of the currency] the fees don’t matter,” Kogan told CoinDesk. “It’s simply not (good) for average people; expensive tech and just waiting for ETH 2.0 to launch. Hard for average people.”

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Thursday but mostly green. Notable winners as of 21:15 UTC (4:15 p.m. ET):

  • 0x (ZRX) + 39.2%

  • orchid (OXT) + 19.6%

  • xrp (XRP) + 13.7%

Notable losers:




Commodities:

  • Oil was up 0.78%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $56.35.

  • Gold was in the red 2.1% and at $1,739 as of press time.

  • Silver is falling, down 1.8% and changing hands at $26.34.

Treasurys:

  • The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Thursday to 1.139 and in the red 0.33%.

The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market




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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Trading Tepidly at $33.7K While SushiSwap Eats Raw Market Share

by Coindesk

Bitcoin is taking a break, staying in a tight trading range with lower than average volume compared to the past month. Meanwhile, alternative cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance are stealing the spotlight.

  • Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $33,782 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 2.5% over the previous 24 hours.

  • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $32,341-$34,715 (CoinDesk 20)

  • BTC above the 10-hour and the 50-hour moving average just slightly on the hourly chart, a sideways-to-bullish signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Jan. 29.

Source: TradingView

The price of bitcoin is extending its weekend respite Monday, trading in a fairly tight $32,500-$34,500 range, although its 24-hour performance is up 2.5% as of press time.

“XRP – and DOGE interestingly – both jumped over the weekend while most of the majors, including BTC and ETH, floundered,” noted Andrew Tu, an executive at quantitative trading firm Efficient Frontier. “While the timing is hard to say, it is usually the case after a period of low volatility that the market breaks out in one direction or the other.”

Bitcoin spot trading volumes on major exchanges were at $2.6 billion Monday as of press time on the eight major venues tracked on the CoinDesk 20. That’s much lower than frenzied $4.8 billion average the past month, but well within earshot of the three-month average of $2.7 billion. 

Bitcoin volumes on major exchanges the past month.
(Shuai Hao/CoinDesk Research)

Source: CryptoCompare

Lower volumes may explain some price sluggishness. Yet, given its 16% rise over the past month, Tu is skewing more bull than bear. 

“The market seems to be leaning bullish, though a break to the downside again is always possible,” he said. 


Bitcoin price performance on Bitstamp in 2021.

Source: TradingView

“January was a bumper month for bitcoin spot and futures volume, easily establishing new monthly all-time highs,” noted Jason Lau, chief operating officer of San Francisco-based exchange OKCoin. “For OKCoin, January spot volumes were more than two times December, which was already an all-time high,” Lau added “There’s clearly still a lot of interest in bitcoin as an asset, with the latest seeing Elon Musk expressing his support.”


Read More: ‘A Good Thing’: Elon Musk Says He’s a Supporter of Bitcoin

Lau told CoinDesk he is seeing a consolidation of bitcoin prices at current levels after the run-up to $42,000. He noted bitcoin’s dominance, a measure of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency market share in the ecosystem, continues to drop. Less than a month ago, on Jan. 3, bitcoin dominance peaked at over 73% and it has dropped roughly 10% since then.

Bitcoin’s dominance in the market so far in 2021.

Source: TradingView

“Alt and DeFi tokens are having their moment with bitcoin dominance down,” said Lau.

SushiSwap eating up DEX market share

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was up Monday, trading around $1,334 and climbing 2% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

Read More: Decentralized Exchange Volumes Hit Record Above $50B in January

SushiSwap is making gains in trading volume market share for decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, hitting an all-time high of over 23% of the entire market as of press time, according to data aggregator Dune Analytics.

Market share of DEX trading volume for the past week.

Source: Dune Analytics

SushiSwap is a “fork” of reigning DEX by volume Uniswap, meaning that Uniswap’s smart contract code was used to create the rival exchange. Peter Chan, head of trading for OneBit Quant, says both SushiSwap and Uniswap are benefiting from cryptocurrency price gyrations to better position themselves in the market. “They both experienced huge growth in volume lately, most due to increased market volatility,” Chan told CoinDesk.

Market share of major DEXs in the past six months.

Source: Dune Analytics

In addition, Misha Alefirenko, co-founder of crypto market maker VelvetFormula, says the DEX exchanges’ token price gains recently enticed traders to switch from centralized exchanges (CEX) over to DEXs. “As we saw in the rally in altcoins, it is predictable that DEXs gain some market share from CEXs, especially in native DeFi tokens.”

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly green Monday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):


Notable losers:


XRP, the native asset of San Francisco-based Ripple Labs, experienced a huge price run-up and subsequent precipitous fall Monday, making it the top loser on the CoinDesk 20 the past 24 hours. 

“The XRP pump and dump may have been another situation where retail day traders brought the price upwards only to crash it,” noted Efficient Frontier’s Tu. “It seems like this sort of phenomenon is going to become more commonplace, especially in less-liquid markets like crypto, having been legitimized by the current zeitgeist.”


Read More: XRP Pump Fails to Materialize as Price Crashes 40% From Day’s High



Commodities:

  • Oil was up 2.8%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $53.66.

  • Gold was in the green 0.75% and at $1,860 as of press time.

  • Silver made major gains, up 7.5% and changing hands at $28.93.

Treasurys:

  • The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield was flat Monday at 1.069.

The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market




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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slips to $30.8K While Investors Plow BTC Back into DeFi

by Coindesk

Bitcoin has been in a $30,000-$35,000 range for almost a week at a time when some market participants are seeking out ether and other crypto to trade during the perceived doldrums.

  • Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $32,003 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 4% over the previous 24 hours.

  • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $30,875- $32,967 (CoinDesk 20)

  • BTC above the 10-hour but below the 50-hour moving averages on the hourly chart, a sideways signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Jan. 23.

Source: TradingView

Bitcoin’s price fell Tuesday, going as low as $30,875 around 15:00 UTC (10 a.m. ET) before coming back up, changing hands around $32,003. 

The drop occurred after the world’s oldest cryptocurrency reached nearly $35,000 on Monday, noted Constantine Kogan, partner at investment firm Wave Financial, who is also bearish on current market conditions. “I expect a decline to $29,000,” he told CoinDesk. “Apparently some of the holders and whales sold off their positions.”


Kogan noted some positive news this week that didn’t move the bitcoin market much. “Marathon has invested $150 million in bitcoin and intends to become the largest miner in the world,” he said. “Crypto funds are raising records, but there was no growth at the same time.” 

Read More: Crypto Miner Marathon Patent Group Buys $150M in Bitcoin

The last time bitcoin was over $35,000 was almost a week ago on Jan. 20, according to CoinDesk 20 data.


Bitcoin’s historical price the past month.

Source: CoinDesk 20

“Many crypto natives and macro traders were anticipating a ~30% pullback off the all-time high from two weeks ago,” noted Brian Mosoff, chief executive officer for investment firm Ether Capital. “Now that it seems to have stabilized in the low $30,000s, traders are treating this as an opportunity to lever up and go long ahead of the next leg up.” 

Tuesday looked like a fairly priced day for long bitcoin leverage, as funding rates dipped a bit from Monday. That was a change from the excitement over the past 90 days, when margin rates could go as over 0.2% on some venues during the crazy price run-up to Jan. 10’s all-time high of $40,986.

Bitcoin swaps funding on major venues the past three months.

Source: Skew

Some are using bitcoin’s valuation relative to other cryptocurrencies as a signal for what’s ahead in the market. 

“I have a strong sentiment towards ether as a leading indicator for an upcoming alt season,” Global Digital Asset Chief Operating Officer Zachary Friedman told CoinDesk, referring to market conditions that favor “alts” or alternative cryptocurrencies. 

Friedman pointed out that bitcoin’s dominance, its share as a percentage of the total crypto market cap, is falling. Indeed, since the start of 2021, bitcoin dominance has fallen more than 10%.

Percentage change in bitcoin’s dominance for 2021 so far.

Source: TradingView

“BTC dominance is dropping as profits are redistributed and ETH sitting just near its all-time high presents an immediate opportunity for new market entrants to diversify their holdings and seek additional yields,” Friedman added.

Bitcoin flows back into decentralized finance

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down Tuesday trading around $1,340 and slipping 2.2% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

Read More: Big Guns Back $10M Investment in DeFi’s dYdX


On Monday the amount of bitcoin held in decentralized finance, or DeFi, crossed back over 40,000 BTC for the first time since mid-December. As of press time, 42,604 BTC were “locked” in DeFi, which investors do to obtain a “yield” in exchange for providing liquidity.

Amount of bitcoin locked in DeFi the past three months.

Source: DeFi Pulse

Ether Capital’s Mosoff says the rotation back into DeFi is simply investors chasing juicier opportunities as the market for bitcoin seems to be in a lull.

“Holders are anticipating ‘alt season’, and want to use their bitcoin to leverage additional exposure to other opportunities within the crypto space, whether it be DeFi tokens or other layer 1s such as Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, NEAR, etc.,” Mosoff said. “Many of these projects have a lot of momentum at the moment and are well positioned for investor participation.”

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly red Tuesday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):


Notable losers:


Read More: Secure Messaging App Signal Reportedly Toying With Crypto Payments



Commodities:

  • Oil was down 0.66%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $52.50.

  • Gold was in the red 0.23% and at $1,851 as of press time.

Treasurys:

  • The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Tuesday to 1.038 and in the green 0.84%.

The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market




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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hits $34.8K While Ether Volatility Skyrockets

by Coindesk

Some bitcoin investors appear to be buying in around $30,000 and taking profits at $40,000, according to one analyst. Meanwhile, ether’s spot market is decoupling from bitcoin and gyrating wildly, according to volatility metrics.

  • Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $32,963 as of 21:15 UTC (4:15 p.m. ET). Gaining 3.5% over the previous 24 hours.

  • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $31,650-$34,893 (CoinDesk 20)

  • BTC above the 10-hour and the 50-hour moving averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Jan. 22.

Source: TradingView

The price of bitcoin made gains opening the week, rallying from as low as $31,640 at around 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET) Sunday to as high as $34,893 at around 14:00 UTC (9 a.m. ET) Monday. The price has slipped a bit since then, with the world’s oldest cryptocurrency changing hands around $32,963 as of press time. 

“A clean break above $34,500 and more sustainably above $36,000 is needed,” David Lifchitz, chief investment officer of quant trading firm ExoAlpha, told CoinDesk. “We could also be in for a classic ‘W’ bottom when the first bounce off the lows is met by another batch of selling before it eventually bounces back for real.”

So far this year, bitcoin is up over 13% on spot exchanges such as Luxembourg-based Bitstamp.

Spot bitcoin performance on Bitstamp in 2021.

Source: TradingView

“Everyone is seeing good buying at the low end of the $30,000s, so clearly the institutions are comfortable entering there,” noted Chris Thomas, head of digital asset for Swissquote Bank.  “We’ve previously seen strong selling around $40,000 so these will be the big tests over the next week or two.”


Read More: Crypto Miner Marathon Patent Group Buys $150M in Bitcoin


“I’d imagine there are a few big names we don’t yet know of currently buying up bitcoin,” Thomas added. “We’ll likely discover them very soon, by which point they will have accumulated quite substantial volumes.”

On the perpetual swaps market, where liquidity providers put up crypto for traders to leverage, funding rates are trending back up, particularly on OKEx, which is offering 0.0865%, its highest since Jan. 20. This is a signal leveraged traders are willing to start paying up to position themselves long.

Bitcoin swaps funding the past week.

Source: Skew

In the options market, a bullish bitcoin mentality appears to be forming. Open interest (OI) by strikes is highest at the $52,000 price point as of Sunday, with 21.4 BTC in OI. Second place is much more bearish, however, with 17.7 BTC piled up at the $20,000 spot level.

Bitcoin options open interest by strike.

Source: Skew

“I think both bitcoin and ether will continue to see higher highs,” said Michael Gord, chief executive officer trading firm Global Digital Assets. “But as we saw in the previous bull run when bitcoin cools off, the spotlight moves to ether and when BTC & ETH are cooled down, we start to see altcoins shine,” Gord added. “That’s what I expect to see the next couple weeks.” 

Something to watch: Ether’s decoupling from bitcoin. Over the past year, the correlation between bitcoin and ether has slipped.

Bitcoin and ether 90-day correlation the past year.

Source: Shuai Hao/CoinDesk Research

On Jan. 24, 2020, the 90-day correlation was at 0.86. A 90-day correlation of 1 means highly correlated. On Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, that figure was at 0.66.

Ether gets volatile

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was flat Monday, trading around $1,342 and in the red 0.08% in 24 hours as of 21:15 UTC (4:15 p.m. ET).

Read More: Big Investors Stacked Up Ether as Price Rose to Record High


Ether’s 30-day volatility, a measure of the asset’s gyrations on the spot market, has risen dramatically since the start of the year. On Jan. 1, 2021, volatility was at 66.87%. On Sunday, Jan. 24, that number hit 152.67%, the highest since April 2020’s coronavirus-induced market crash. It’s also much higher than bitcoin’s 106.33% volatility as of Jan. 24.

Ether and bitcoin’s 30-day volatility the past year.

Source: Shuai Hao/CoinDesk Research

Greg Magadini, chief executive officer of data aggregator Genesis Volatility, said that while the increased price fluctuations might be an opportunity for some traders, he’s cautious about any bearish downside. 

“We noted in our newsletter that ETH volatility is historically very high but we are cautious to short it, compared to BTC,” Magadini told CoinDesk. “ETH has room to run. A spike to over $2,000 in quick fashion is definitely in the cards for ETH.”

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Monday. Notable winners as of 21:15 UTC (4:15 p.m. ET):


Notable losers:




Read More: Why Did Bill Miller and His Son Buy MicroStrategy Debt? It’s the Bitcoin

Commodities:

  • Oil was up 1.3%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $52.72.

  • Gold was flat, in the green 0.01% and at $1,854 as of press time.

Treasurys:

  • The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Monday to 1.030 and in the red 6.3%.

The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market




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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Back Above $33K While Ether Up 65% in 2021

by Coindesk

Crypto markets have reversed course across the board and are flashing green Friday. Bitcoin crossed over $32,000 and ether is rallying hard in 2021 so far.

  • Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $33,608 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 5.3% over the previous 24 hours.

  • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $28,845-$33,873 (CoinDesk 20)

  • BTC above the 10-hour and the 50-hour moving averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Jan. 19.

Source: TradingView

Bitcoin’s price was on an uptrend Friday, a marked reversal from the past several days. The price per 1 BTC bottomed out at $28,845 around 01:00 UTC (8:00 p.m. ET Thursday) and since then the world’s oldest cryptocurrency has been on an upward run. It reached as high as $33,873, according to CoinDesk 20 data, an appreciation of over 17% in that time span. Price has since settled somewhat, at $33,608 as of press time. 

Read More: MicroStrategy Buys the Dip, Adds $10M to Bitcoin Treasury

Guy Hirsch, U.S. managing director for multi-asset brokerage eToro, says one support level, where traders scoop up bitcoin to push the price back up, seems to have taken hold, leading to the reversal Friday. “There appears to be strong support around $30,000, as prices have rebounded to trade north of $32,000,” Hirsch told CoinDesk. This consolidation is likely the result of smart money continuing to buy bitcoin at a perceived discount.

Historical bitcoin price over the past year.

Source: CoinDesk 20

Quantitative trading firm QCP Capital echoed a similar sentiment about the $30,000 level in its most recent investor letter published Friday. “In the near term, we’re expecting a key battle at the $30,000 spot level. This battle for the $30,000 weekly close will be key.”

In the derivatives market, bitcoin funding rates for swaps continue heading towards zero, particularly on venue FTX, which currently has the lowest rate, at 0.0318%. This signals leveraged demand to go long is dissipating.


Bitcoin perpetual swaps funding on major venues the past week.

Source: Skew

“We pay close attention to weekend price action and the leveraged [perpetual] funding rates to gauge retail interest,” QCP noted Friday. 


Read More: Bitcoin Exchange LVL Launches Mastercard Debit Card

In the futures market, total open interest (OI) on the eight exchanges monitored by the CoinDesk 20 was at $11 billion Thursday, down from Tuesday’s record high of $13 billion. That is a sign institutional investors are losing interest and may be unwinding some of their positions.

Bitcoin futures on major venues the past six months.

Source: Skew

“After the BTC top two weeks ago, the strength in U.S. hours has lost momentum for the first time,” QCP also noted. “This is a clear sign of exhaustion in demand from the U.S. institutions and corporates [that] have been the primary drivers of this bull run.”

Yet, macroeconomics may come into play, eToro’s Hirsch noted to CoinDesk. “With economic uncertainty continuing as the COVID-19 pandemic continues raging and central bank money printing continues unchecked, I’d expect more people to eventually rotate back into bitcoin in the not-too-distant future.”

Ether blowing out bitcoin in 2021

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Friday, trading around $1,253 and climbing 4% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

Read More: Mining Pools Threaten to Collude Against Contentious Ethereum Update


While bitcoin has gained more than 15% thus far in 2021, ether is doing much better, up over 70% over the same time frame. “Ether appears to have finally broken its recent lockstep correlation with bitcoin, as evidenced by its more rapid recovery after a sell-off, which also appears to have been fueled by profit taking after the second-largest crypto asset hit an all-time high earlier this week,” noted eToro’s Guy Hirsch.

Spot ether (blue) versus bitcoin (gold) on Bitstamp so far in 2021.

Source: TradingView

Jake Brukhman, chief executive officer of crypto investment firm CoinFund, told CoinDesk investors are taking profits made from bitcoin and trading into ether and other assets given the 2021 price performance and high profile of bitcoin. 

“I think the major assets are going through a dynamic of high hitting, consolidation and rotation,” Brukhman said. “Bitcoin hits [a] high, then consolidates and the money flows into ether. Then ether hits a high, then consolidates and the money flows into polkadot.”

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly green Friday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):


One notable loser:




Commodities:

  • Oil was down 1.8%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $52.05.

  • Gold was in the red 0.85% and at $1,853 as of press time.

Treasurys:

  • The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Friday to 1.084 and in the red 2.3%.

The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market




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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 26,846.19 1.24%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,858.36 0.59%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 91.59 2.65%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 112.89 0.15%